This month one of Dr. Search's associates was in a hurry to install a copy of FAST ESP 5.06 for a demo using Windows Drive D:. During the install, the program suggested that the data directory might best be located on C:, the implication being that the program and data directories should be on different spindles. The associate, who knew the system drive didn't have as much room for data and collections as D:, decided to re-start the install, placing the program files on C: and the data files on D:. As it turns out, that was a mistake.

He soon received three pop-up error messages:

Now remember, FAST had suggested Drive C: as the destination for data directories and collections - and now there is an error.

Our associate decided there must be something wrong with the copy of dictionaries.zip, so he went back and downloaded the image from the ftp site and tried again. Same failure, same place,

Our fearless associate unzipped the dictionaries.zip file and it worked fine. Even the component files seemed to be fine.

When you are sure everything is right, and it still doesn't work, something you are sure of is wrong. Our associate went back and looked at the system. He tried verifying the system name; the IP address, and all the things he knew FAST can be picky about, all to no avail. Finally, he looked at Drive C: - and sure enough, it was almost out of space!. During the install, ZIP files are unzipped on the system temp directory; and with a large file like dictionaries.zip there just wasn't room for the file, the extracted copy, and the remaining binaries.

It was an easy mistake to make; but the log file created by FAST contained remarkably unhelpful guidance. When things really get weird - check your disk space! See you next year!

We hope this has been useful to you; feel free to contact Dr. Search directly if you have any follow-up or additional questions. Remember to send your enterprise search questions to Dr. Search. Every entry (with name and address) gets a free cup and a pen, and the thanks of Dr. Search and his readers.